U.S. and Iranian Officials Meet in Baghdad, but Talks Yield No Breakthroughs

KIRK SEMPLE

Tuesday

May 29, 2007 at 5:39 AM

The United States and Iran held the first high-profile, face-to-face talks in nearly three decades today, adhering to an agenda that focused strictly on Iraq.

BAGHDAD, May 28 — The United States and Iran held rare face-to-face talks in Baghdad on Monday, adhering to an agenda that focused strictly on the war in Iraq and on ways the two bitter adversaries could help improve conditions here.

The meeting between Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker of the United States and Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qumi of Iran — held in the offices of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki — produced no agreements nor a promise of a follow-up meeting between the nations, participants said.

But Mr. Crocker said at a news conference afterward that the meeting “proceeded positively” and was “businesslike.” Both sides, he said, articulated a common desire to help stabilize Iraq.

“The Iranians, as well as ourselves, laid out the principles that guide our respective policies toward Iraq,” he said. “There was pretty good congruence right down the line: support for a secure, stable, democratic, federal Iraq, in control of its own security, at peace with its neighbors.”

Mr. Qumi, who held a separate news conference, said, “Some problems have been raised and studied, and I think this was a positive step.”

The meeting occurred against a backdrop of worsening conflict in Iraq and deepening animosity between Iran and the United States; each accuses the other of contributing to Iraq’s instability.

Underscoring the security challenges here — the exclusive topic of the meeting — a car bomb exploded Monday afternoon next to a revered Sunni Arab mosque in central Baghdad, killing at least 24 people and wounding 68, the police said.

The ambassadors suggested in their comments after the meeting that there was no detailed exchange of ideas nor any comprehensive discussion about mutual criticisms.

“As you surely know among diplomats,” Mr. Crocker told reporters, “you don’t need a lot of substance to take up a lot of time.”

He said he “laid out before the Iranians a number of our direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq.” The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of meddlesome activities in Iraq, including training Shiite militiamen and shipping highly lethal weaponry into Iraq for use in attacks by Shiite and Sunni Arab militants against American troops.

Mr. Crocker said he told his Iranian counterpart that those activities “needed to cease.”

“We all are pretty much in the same place in terms of declaratory policy,” he said. “The problem lies, in our view, with the Iranians not bringing their behavior on the ground into line with their own policy.”

The Iranian ambassador said he told Mr. Crocker that Iran was willing to train and equip Iraqi security forces to create “a new military and security structure” and asserted that the American efforts to do the same were inadequate. He said that Iran was also prepared to help rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure, which he said had been “demolished by the American invaders.”

Mr. Crocker said that the Iranian delegation proposed forming a “trilateral mechanism” to coordinate security matters in Iraq, a proposal that Mr. Crocker said he would forward to Washington for consideration.

Hewing to the strict guidelines of the meeting, neither side discussed the United States’ complaints about Iran’s nuclear program. The Bush administration says the program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons; Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.

Mr. Crocker said the Iraqi government planned to invite the United States and Iran to another meeting, but that the United States is “going to want to wait and see” whether the Iranians change their “behavior” in Iraq to bring it in line with their stated principles.

The meeting reflected a significant shift in President Bush’s approach toward Iran.

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran after the 1979 Islamist revolution and the storming of the American Embassy in Tehran. The Bush administration has insisted that Iran must abandon its uranium enrichment program before direct, high-level negotiations can take place between the nations.

But in recent months, the administration has begun to soften its opposition to diplomatic contacts, particularly over Iraq.

Just before 10:30 a.m. on Monday, the ambassadors were greeted by Mr. Maliki, who led them into a conference room in his office. The officials, flanked by members of their delegations, sat across from one another at a long, polished conference table.

“We are sure that securing progress in this meeting would, without doubt, enhance the bridges of trust between the two countries and create a positive atmosphere,” Mr. Maliki said in a televised statement. He then left the meeting, which was led by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, his national security adviser, giving the patina of three-way talks to what was fundamentally a bilateral encounter.

The meeting followed a drumbeat of public recriminations between the countries recently.

Last week, the Bush administration said it would use a new report detailing Iran’s progress in enriching uranium to encourage European and Asian allies to seek a major expansion of sanctions against the country. The United States also dispatched nine warships with 17,000 troops into the Persian Gulf for naval exercises, which further inflamed tensions.

On Saturday, Iran said it had uncovered spy networks inside Iran that were organized by the United States and its Western allies.

Iran has also accused the United States of illegally holding seven Iranians who were detained by American forces in Iraq earlier this year on suspicion of being spies. Iran maintains that the men are diplomats. Mr. Crocker said that matter was not raised at the meeting.

Violence continued to tear through Iraq. The deadliest attack of the day was the bombing of the Abdul-Qadir al-Gailani Mosque in central Baghdad, one of the world’s most important shrines in Sufism.

The blast destroyed several cars, shattered glass in buildings within a radius of 200 yards and scattered victims’ body parts. “It was like an earthquake,” said Mowaffak Abdulla, 55, who witnessed the explosion. “Smoke, dust and fire everywhere. Cars were burning.”

As he spoke, Mr. Abdulla burst into tears. “Why would they target our Sheik Abdul-Qadir?” he wailed. “What is the government doing to stop this? I don’t think they can protect us because they cannot protect themselves.”

In the past two years, Sufis have found themselves the targets of attacks by fundamentalist Sunnis who view them as apostates.

Several prominent Sunni and Shiite leaders speculated that the mosque attack was the work of extremist Sunni insurgents likely operating under the auspices of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the insurgent group that has made the car bomb one of its gruesome hallmarks.

The attackers “are committing these acts to create and increase the sectarian violence in our country,” said Omar Abdul-Sattar, a Sunni Arab legislator from the Iraqi Consensus Front, the largest Sunni Arab bloc in Parliament. “The only solution is to stand together against them and against violence.”

The mosque’s imam, Sheik Mahmoud al-Isawi, said in a tearful phone interview that the attackers were “enemies of Iraq.” The mosque, he said, “is for all Iraqis: Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs.”

Prime Minister Maliki ordered that the mosque be reconstructed and that security be tightened at the site.

In the Kasra neighborhood of Baghdad, which has a mixed population of Sunnis and Shiites, an improvised bomb hidden on a roadway killed nine people and wounded 20, an Interior Ministry official said. In the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Fadhel, militants ambushed a police patrol, killing seven police officers and wounding three, the ministry official said.

Gunmen kidnapped more than 40 people near Samarra, in Salahuddin Province, north of Baghdad, said a police commander in Tikrit, the provincial capital. The official said the gunmen appeared to be linked to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which operates in the area and has attacked local Sunni Arab targets in response to the formation of a tribal council that has vowed to fight the group.

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